2. Four Key Questions
1. What is management/strategy consulting?
An example of a management consulting engagement
•
2. Strategy Consulting as a Career Choice – Why I chose it?
3. What do Management Consulting Firms look for?
4. How can I prepare myself?
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3. What is Management Consulting?
1. Structured problem solving designed to solve a business problem for a wide range of
organisations
Structured:
a) About asking the right questions
b) About having a robust framework that is:
… simple enough to start with, and
•
… yet can factor in the complexity of the real world
•
2. Egs of business problems:
a) Company A has an in-country that over the last 3 years been experiencing dropping
profitability and wants to understand why and what it can do to turn the situation around.
The company is considering closing the operation but needs to be sure if there is no
scope of a turnaround
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4. Example of an engagement approach
1. Problem statement: How can company A improve its profitability and more specifically Return on
Investment on a consistent basis from its current levels of 14% after tax to a minimum 20% in line
with other operating subsidiaries?
Define the Determine the Develop Perform
Synthesise Communicate
problem key issues hypotheses analyses
Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate
Do not re-invent the wheel – another company has had to deal with this problem before – a good
•
place to start
80/20 (Pareto) principle – the key is to find the solution to the 20% that produces the 80% impact
•
Hypothesis driven – hypotheses typically informed by experience of the firm, and informed ‘gut
•
feel’
Iteration is key – especially given hypothesis-driven approach
•
4
5. Example of an engagement approach
1. Problem statement: How can company A improve its profitability and more specifically Return on
Investment on a consistent basis from its current levels of 14% after tax to a minimum 20% in line
with other operating subsidiaries?
Increase
prices • Develop
informed
hypotheses to
Increase
the key
revenues Increase
questions
market share
identified?
Increase – Which are
New products?
volumes the most
Increase likely key
after tax Grow the New issues
profit market geographies?
• Determine the
kinds of
… analyses
required to
prove or
disprove the
Reduce
hypotheses
costs
• Iterate
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6. Four key elements of any strategy
The following four key elements a critical part of any organisational strategy, and must receive adequate and explicit
attention
Organizational Model
Determine organisational model best aligned to
•
chosen strategy – along three dimensions:
– Enterprise structure – product
Strategy based/functional/geographical/hybrid?
Business Model
formulation/review – Governance - inter-relations between
different components, making explicit
accountabilities and responsibilities
– People – company organogram and talent
Key drivers of financial
•
Aspirations and the context
•
strategy (sourcing, recruiting, developing,
performance identified
they set for company strategy
exciting and retaining, managing
Link products and services to
•
Baseline analysis – market performance)
•
company financials in a logical
segments, market positioning,
and determinative fashion
competitive positioning,
industry analysis - trends and Basis for determining effective key
•
Operational Model
basis of competition performance indicators for
business units, functions and
Determine strategic options
•
individuals
Make choices re initiatives to
•
Key operational processes identified and reviewed
•
focus on
to align to strategy and organisational model
Test and plan for execution
•
Key business systems required to support
•
company defined and scoped for development
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7. Why I chose management consulting
1. The best in-practice MBA there is
Introduction to business problem solving at the highest level
•
The opportunity to learn what has been learned over scores of years in a short time
•
2. I love problem solving
3. The money, of course!
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8. What do management consulting firms typically look for?
Typically, the following are intrinsics of interest:
1. Problem solving ability – quantitative qualitative
2. Initiative – entrepreneurship
3. Inter-personal relationships – especially important for the numerous/constant client
interactions
4. Leadership
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9. How best to prepare oneself?
CV must accurately reflect the following
•
Academic excellence, in whatever your field is
–
Leadership
–
General achievement in life – not necessarily academic
–
There is a lot of preparation assistance available for interviews, from firms like McKinsey,
•
Bain & Company etc – e.g. case interviews
Research about the firms of interest on their websites
•
McKinsey & Company
•
Bain & Company – www.bain.com
•
Boston Consulting Group – www.bcg.com
•
Booz Allen Hamilton – www.boozallencom
•
Letsema Consulting – www.letsema.co.za
•
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